Parenting month 96: in sickness and in health

The dominant theme of the past two months has been pneumonia.  DS8 went down first around Thanksgiving.  We basically missed a week of school. Then, as he was getting worse, we spent a week in the hospital.  Followed by another missed week of school while he was joined by DD4.    My wife and I have the fortune of having some control over our schedules, so we every semester we set up our class schedules so that it is possible for one of us to stay home if the kids were sick, and we did that for 2+ weeks.

DD4 (A) is more and more an outgoing and willful child. Always exploring and talking. Turning into a consumate storyteller.

DD8 (T) has steadily been meeting requirements for the gifted program.  He started this year as last year he just moved into his new school.  And in the past two months, a few other new kids have joined in.  We note that the gifted program is more interesting than just additional academic work, but they do different and interesting things.

For next year, the main concern is T with creativity and initiative.  He seems good when it is just kids, but he often freezes or does nothing instead of doing something.

For A, she is moving up to transitional kindergarden (which seems to occur based on the age population of the pre-school.  So she gets to be the youngest in the class, which is a good thing for here to experience.